Ubuntu PowerEdge T110

To clarify, to remotely administer the most basic level of hardware (hard reboots, BIOS settings / update) you want a "Lights Out Management" (LOM) card, which is an embedded server with its own processor on a card in the server, or a KVM-switch type solution.

For ordinary everyday Operating System level (i.e. Linux) administration, using remote text access such as provided via ssh. Yes, it will be annoying to learn all the commands and flags in the beginning, but it is quicker, and less painful than working daily via a remote graphical administration in my experience. I've been able to support remote systems in exotic locations using ssh for routine administration on high-latency (1000ms) 64kps or less network connections.

I'm not sure it's what you're looking for, but I tend to upgrade PowerEdge systems using the OMSA live CD from the OpenManage Dell site. I just boot it up (it's centOS-based), downloaded the needed upgrade files for Red Hat, run them, and then reboot back to the original system.